BioMed: Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology

The graduate program in Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology offers advanced training appropriate for a large variety of careers in the fields of biology and medical sciences that include molecular and structural pharmacology and signal transduction; pharmacology and physiology of neural and organ systems; cellular physiology and biophysics; and translational pharmacology and physiology that link basic science and medicine in the treatment of disease.

Although general GREs are required for entry into the Graduate School, our program's admissions committee does not use GRE scores as an admissions cutoff. We do consider the scores, but only in combination with more powerful predictors of success, such as letters of recommendation, research experience, personal statements, academic performance and interviews.

Programs of study and research are developed individually in consultation with the student's advisor and advisory committees and are designed to ensure expertise in the student's principal research area, while establishing a strong foundation in the broad fields of pharmacology and physiology. Admission is ordinarily limited to applicants for the Ph.D., but admissions for a fifth-year master's degree only may also be permitted.

Additional resources: All graduate student research is carried out in faculty research laboratories. In addition to all of the basic research equipment, tools, and facilities, major shared facilities include an electron microscope facility, which houses two high-resolution transmission electron microscopes and a scanning electron microscope; a professionally staffed animal-care facility fully equipped for animal maintenance, large animal surgery, and experimentation; an artificial-organ laboratory; a NMR facility with a 500 MHz (with cryogenic probe) spectrometer; a mouse transgenic and knockout core facility; a proteomics core facility including a Biacore T-100; and a molecular genetics core facility with the capacity to analyze gene-chips are available.

Completion RequirementsPh.D.: Students must pass a preliminary research examination according to established schedules, complete and publicly defend a doctoral dissertation, and participate in the undergraduate and graduate teaching programs of the Division of Biology and Medicine. Attainment of the Ph.D. degree normally requires four to five years for Ph.D. candidates and three to four years of graduate work for M.D./Ph.D. candidates.

Admission InformationAdmission requirements: Writing sample, in the form of a personal statement, required